22 days in Japan

Hi, we are two couples, planning a 22 days visit along Japan between October 2-23 2019.
Arrival and departure are from Narita- Tokyo.
I'm struggling fitting all places on a sensible way and match the best route with the JR pass.

The route :
2 days Tokyo
1 day Nikko, back to Tokyo
1 day Hakone+ Fuji, sleep in Nagoya
5 days in the Alps includes 9-10 October Takayama festival ( maybe renting a car for those days??)
4 days Kyoto
1 day mount Koya
1 day Nara
I'll be grateful for any help.
1 day Osaka
3 days for Himaji, Naoshima, Hiroshima and Miajima
2 days back to Tokyo

I think you have a little too much on your itinerary.

It will be close to three hours from Hakone to Nagoya, so even if you leave Tokyo early in the morning and arrive at Nagoya late, you'll spend a lot of time travelling and not a lot of time enjoying your 'day' at Hakone. Also the Mt Fuji area is mostly not covered by the JR Pass-once you leave Odawara you're in another railway area.

I don't think 3 days is enough for Himeji, Naoshima, Hiroshima and Miyajima: you will likely spend half a day at Himeji and want a minimum of two full days for Hiroshima and Miyajima, leaving aside travel times (about an hour and a half to get to Hiroshima from Osaka, and nearly an hour each way to Miyajima). There are works going on at Miyajima which might make the tori less attractive than usual. Also, to get to Himeji you need to catch a slow train as the fast trains don't stop there, so that does absorb more hours out of your day.

I've not been to Mt Koya but my sense is one day won't be enough to get a feel for the area.

Have a wonderful time in Japan!

JR passes are great but it's a shame to let having a pass influence what you do on your holiday. I like this calculator for working out the value: https://www.japan-guide.com/railpass/

You can also look at Hyperdia to get a sense of how your train trips will actually look.

Your travel is roughly 50k yen. The 21-day pass is 60k. You might not want the rail pass depending on your actual schedule.

3 days for Himeji, Naoshima, Hiroshima and Miyajima - it might be doable:
day 1 - morning arrival at Hiroshima (10am is enough), walk through the Hiroshima city
day 2 - Miyajima island, in the afternoon travel to Naoshima (you will want to sleep at Naoshima or as close as possible to save the time for third day)
day 3 - Naoshima in the morning and then to Okayama, shinkansen to Himeji (Sakura and Hikari stop at Okayama and Himeji), after Himeji you can even travel to Tokyo if you dont mind late arrival to Tokyo (around 11pm)
For day 3 it would be crucial how fast can you get from Naoshima back to Okayama, since Naoshima is island. Theoretically you could also cram Himeji + Hiroshima city into day 1 (it depends on what do you want to see in Hiroshima - I think one afternoon might be enough for the city if you want to see just the most famous things), then you could have the day 3 for Naoshima only (and perhaps make stop at Okayama on the way back, Korakuen is nice garden).

Agree on what PPs said about the Hiroshima/Naoshima/Himeiji leg a well as on the Hakone/Fuji/Nagoya leg. Let me add comments on the rest:

5 days in the Alps includes 9-10 October Takayama festival ( maybe renting a car for those days??)
Have you secured accomodation already in or around Takayama?
Renting a car for things outside of Takayama could be a good idea to get to Ainokura (and skip Shirakawago) and to get up in the mountains to the Okuhida region. It is partially accessible by public transport, but if you want to move a little bit more easily a car is an option.


4 days Kyoto
1 day mount Koya
1 day Nara
1 day Osaka

I hope you dont plan to change accommodation each time. I would do all the Kansai visits, EXCEPT Koya-san from just one place. You could either stay in Nara, Osaka or Kyoto. There are pro's and con's to all of these places, and just ride by train to the destination of your day. The most logical place would likely be Kyoto.

For Koya-san, I think you need one night there and should have most of the the day before and after (i.e. dont arrive with the last train / depart with the first. Travel to Koya-san is slow.

Enjoy your trip to Japan!

Thank you all!!
as for the 5 days in the alps 2 things:
1. we would like to include: Kiso Valley, Matsumoto, the Alpine road, Kamikochi Takayama, Shirakawa and Kanazawa. is it doable?
2. where is the best place to rent a car for the Alps tour?

Hi!

I'm going to go with no, for the possibility of doing Kiso Valley, Matsumoto, Kamikochi, Takayama, Shirakawa Go, Kanazawa and whatever the "Alpine Road" is, unless you are doing a really cursory visit and prefer to just spend more time sitting in a car. (If you mean the Alpine Route from Toyama to Ogizawa, then this is even more so, and you can't use a car for that route at all.)

Please be aware that while you can rent a car, there are substantial drop-off fees if the car is not returned in the same prefecture it is rented in. If you've found a company that does not charge drop-off fees, I'd love to hear about it. I just got back from Japan where I rented the smallest and cheapest car from Orix. It was fine fir my party (1 adult+1 child) but the back seat might be a little squishy for two adults and unless you pack super light, you're not going to be fitting much in the back space. I think the cost of the car+the cost of gas+the cost of drop-off fees is going to make your 5 days with a car cost more than you think, and again the car is useless if you want to do the Alpine Route between Ogizawa and Toyama. Cars are not allowed in Kamikochi. You will need to use one of the paid lots. I would suggest the one near Hirayu on the Takayama side since it seems to have more frequent buses than the paid lot on the Matsumoto side.

Depending on what you cut, it might make sense to rent a car near the Kiso Valley in Nagano-ken since you could return it in Nagano city and easily catch a shinkansen there for Kanazawa and Toyama or do the Alpine Route. I don't know if this is true for Nagano-ken but I know when I was looking to rent a car in Iwate-ken it was the same price to drop my car off in Morioka and Hanamaki as in Ichinoseki where I rented the car. I don't know if it is just me, but on average, it took me 30 minutes to actually rent the two cars I rented this trip to Japan.

I think trying to do Naoshima, Himeji, Hiroshima and Miyajima in 3 days is impossible. The boats to and from Naoshima and Uno are not timed well for the trains from Uno back to Okayama and I believe always involve a 40+ minute layover. I was looking at visiting Naoshima a year ago and noticed this problem.

If for Fuji you mean Kawaguchiko, I think you will struggle to fit that and Hakone into one trip that also includes overnighting in Nagoya unless you again plan only the most cursory visit to both Hakone and Kawaguchiko. But if you plan that, I personally do not know why you would want to spend the money going to either, since you're going to be spending most of your time just traveling from destination to destination and not at an actual destination.

Good luck!

Hi,
Thank you for all your comments.
Few more things:
1. We're thinking to rent a car for 4 days in Kanazawa and return in Kyoto. Approximately, how much is the return fee for this location ?
2. we have doubt about Miyajima due to the renovations- does anyone knows how crucial the renovations are to enjoying visiting the place?

1. We're thinking to rent a car for 4 days in Kanazawa and return in Kyoto. Approximately, how much is the return fee for this location ?
The rental car company knows.

Hi!

The rental car company would know but it is likely at least 10,000 yen. I got 10,000 yen when I was looking to do Takayama to Matsumoto and I got 10,000 yen when I was looking at a Fukushima or Koriyama drop-off with an Iwate-ken pick-up. I doubt it will be less than 10,000 yen. Please be aware there are expressway tolls as well in Japan. I had a TEP Pass for Tohoku. There is a CEP Pass, but I think Kyoto needs to be paid for additionally. https://hayatabi.c-nexco.co.jp/page/?id=91

I have not personally been to Miyajima since 2017, but in a few weeks ago when I was in Kyoto I met other foreign tourists who had been to Miyajima earlier in June 2019. In regards to the renovation work, they said it was only being done during low tide and during high tide the gate was uncovered. This is hearsay and it was specifically about June 2019.

I hope this helps!